The Relationship of Barometric Pressure, Moon Phase
and Welfare Check Delivery to the Misbehavior of Special Education Students
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the National
Ed. D. Program for Educational Leaders
Nova University Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
by
Ray Petty
January, 1987
ABSTRACT
This report describes the comparison of barometric pressure and its changes, moon phase, and the delivery dates of welfare checks with student behavior in the Special Education Learning Center, a specialized therapeutic school (K-12) for 180 students with severe behavior disorders. Correlations between each predictor and behavior variable, and between pairs of predictor variables with each behavior variable were calculated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences X Program on a DEC 20 computer.
After careful recording and entry of all data, scatterplots of each correlation were generated to show initial relationship configurations. Several scatterplots were redesigned to adjust spread. In the one area where an accepted significant correlation was found, results were further grouped and an analysis of variance conducted. Two-factor analyses of variance were conducted between pairs of predictor variables and each behavioral variable.
Analysis of the resultant correlations and analysis of variance showed
only one statistically significant relationship - the larger drops in barometric
pressure showed a negative correlation with the number of violent incidents.
Since the difference averaged only one case per day, however, the finding
did not have educational significance. Several interesting side effects
are discussed.
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